Simon Scarrow

Simon Scarrow is a Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author. After a childhood spent travelling the world, he pursued his great love of history as a teacher, before becoming a full-time writer. His Roman soldier heroes Cato and Macro made their debut in 2000 in Under the Eagle, and have subsequently appeared in many bestsellers in the Eagles of the Empire series, including Centurion, Invictus and Day of the Ceasars.

Simon has also published a quartet of novels about the lives of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte: Young Blood, The Generals, Fire and Sword and The Fields of Death; a novel about the 1565 Siege of Malta, Sword & Scimitar; Hearts of Stone, set in Greece during the Second World War; and Playing with Death, a contemporary thriller written with Lee Francis.

Simon is also the author of the Inspector Schenke thrillers set in the activities of the1939-1940 Berlin Kriminalpolizei. A Death in Berlin is the third novel in the series.

From Alderney to Anhalter Station

How can a policeman with integrity enforce the law under a regime run by gangsters?
That was the question Simon Scarrow kept coming back to throughout the research into German policing that began when he was sketching out the idea for a crime novel set on Alderney during World War 2. Before long, the plan expanded into a series that will cover the war years as Inspector Horst Schenke tackles a range of crimes that involve members of the regime from time to time. The first two novels were BLACKOUT and DEAD OF NIGHT and the third, A DEATH IN BERLIN, will be published in March 2025, just in time for the festival! As well as discussing the origins of the series, Simon will outline the deliberately messy structure of the Nazi security apparatus and discuss the challenges faced by law enforcers during the dark days of the Third Reich.